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Top 10 stories of the day: Court denies Stilfontein miners’ aid | Crime stats | Breyten Breytenbach dies at 85

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By Chulumanco Mahamba

News today includes the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has dismissed an application to seek final relief for the illegal miners still underground at Stilfontein, North West.

Meanwhile, the crime statistics for the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year painted a positive picture, with all of the country’s serious crimes showing quarter-on-quarter decrease.

Furthermore, South African writer and poet Breyten Breytenbach died in Paris over the weekend, his family confirmed.

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News Today: 21 November 2024

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Court dismisses organisation’s application for relief of Stilfontein illegal miners

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has dismissed an application to seek final relief for the illegal miners still underground at Stilfontein, North West.

Civil organisation, the Society for the Protection of our Constitution, approached the court in a bid to force government departments, including the South African Police Service (Saps), to provide necessary emergency disaster relief to the illegal miners, such as food, water, medical supplies, blankets and, if needed, medical relief.

A system of pulleys and ropes installed by members of the South Africa Police Service is set up over an entrance to a disused gold mine shaft in Stilfontein, around 150 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg, South Africa, 17 November 2024. A South African court has ordered the lifting of a police blockade of the abandoned gold mine, in which people are illegally located. Police had blocked the mine in an attempt to force the people inside to exit. Picture: EPA-EFE/STRINGER

The application also compelled the government departments to extract the zama-zamas that are alleged to be trapped underground.

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CONTINUE READING: Court dismisses organisation’s application for relief of Stilfontein illegal miners


R2m to eat with Jacob Zuma – A look at the MK party’s gala dinner prices

How much would you be willing to pay to eat at the same table as former president Jacob Zuma?

The umKhonto weSizwe (MK) party revealed on Monday afternoon the prices for table packages at their first anniversary celebrations.

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Former president Jacob Zuma with his wife Thobeka Madiba-Zuma during the ANC gala dinner at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban on 11 January 2019. Picture: Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Felix Dlangamandla

The table Zuma will be seated at, the ‘Platnum Spear Table’, will cost a whopping R2 million. 

CONTINUE READING: R2m to eat with Jacob Zuma – A look at the MK party’s gala dinner prices


Crime stats: Murder rate down but more than 50 000 sexual offences in last 12 months

Minster of Police Senzo Mchunu released the crime statistics for the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.

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The presentation painted a positive picture, with all of the country’s serious crimes showing quarter-on-quarter decrease.

Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu. Picture: X . @SAPoliceService

However, police still recorded a total of 160 935 serious crimes.

CONTINUE READING: Crime stats: Murder rate down but more than 50 000 sexual offences in last 12 months


WATCH: This bridge in Pretoria North is not collapsing, says mayor

Amid rising concerns of collapsing infrastructure in the country due to vandalism, lack of maintenance and extreme weather, among other reasons, another bridge in Pretoria has left residents worried.

Speculation was rife on Sunday after a video showing cuts at the bottom of the bridge piles, with some reports falsely claiming they had been vandalised by “illegal foreigners who are spiking cars, who have now switched their focus to destroying infrastructure”.

Picture: Screenshot of City of Tshwane video

However, according to Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya, the President Styen Street Bridge in Pretoria North is not collapsing.

CONTINUE READING: WATCH: This bridge in Pretoria North is not collapsing, says mayor


Afrikaans anti-apartheid writer and poet Breyten Breytenbach dies at 85

South African writer and poet Breyten Breytenbach died in Paris over the weekend, his family confirmed.

“He passed away peacefully in Paris (France) at the age of 85 – with his wife Yolande by his side,” Breytenbach’s family averred in a statement.

South African writer and poet Breyten Breytenbach died in Paris over the weekend at the age of 85 his family confirmed.. Picture: Patrick ROBERT/Sygma via Getty Images.

The family statement described him as a celebrated South African wordsmith whose work “profoundly shaped literature and the arts, both locally and abroad.”

CONTINUE READING: Afrikaans anti-apartheid writer and poet Breyten Breytenbach dies at 85



Yesterday’s News recap

READ HERE: Zuma appoints convicted fraudster Joe Ndhlela and Malema says ‘EFF infiltrated by double agents

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Published by
By Chulumanco Mahamba
Read more on these topics: Top 10 stories of the day